2014-15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine
In 2014, Russia made several incursions into Ukrainian territory, thus breaking the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Starting with the 2014 Crimean crisis, soldiers of ambiguous affiliation began to take control of strategic positions and infrastructure within the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, which Russia then annexed.6263 On 4 March, during his press conference, Putin denied Russian troops interfered64 but then admitted on 17 April65 that Russian troops had been active in Crimea and said this had laid the ground for the Crimean status referendum.9636667 The invasion by Russian military forces was later acknowledged by Putin in the 2015 documentary Crimea. The Way Home and described in the report Putin. War prepared by assassinated politician Boris Nemtsov. After the annexation of Crimea, demonstrations by pro-Russian groups in the Donbass area of Ukraine escalated into an armed conflict between the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and the Ukrainian government. In August, Russian military vehicles crossed the border in several locations of Donetsk Oblast, massing 40,00068 army units near the Ukrainian border.3369707172 Russia denied it sent military personnel and equipment leading Western and Ukrainian military officials to term Russia's involvement a 'stealth invasion'.737475 The incursion by the Russian military was seen as responsible for the defeat of Ukrainian forces in early September.7677 In November 2014 the Ukrainian military reported intensive movement of troops and equipment from Russia into the separatist controlled parts of eastern Ukraine.78 The Associated Press reported 80 unmarked military vehicles on the move in rebel-controlled areas.79 An OSCE Special Monitoring Mission observed convoys of heavy weapons and tanks in DPR-controlled territory without insignia.80 According to an assessment provided to The Daily Beast by a former Pentagon strategy adviser returning from Ukraine, there were as many as 7,000 Russian troops inside Ukraine in early November 2014, with between 40,000 and 50,000 at the country’s eastern border.81 OSCE monitors further observed vehicles apparently used to transport ammunition and soldiers' dead bodies crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border on Ukraine on 11 November 2014, under the guise of "humanitarian aid convoys".82 Since the beginning of the conflict, those vehicles have crossed the Ukrainian border at least a dozen of times. Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine,83 comments made by rebel leaders such as Alexander Zakharchenko,8485 and statements from human rights groups indicated that Russian service personnel were fighting in Ukraine.8687 Russia has denied allegations of its involvement in eastern Ukraine. Several members of the international community and organizations such as Amnesty International have condemned Russia for its actions in post-revolutionary Ukraine, accusing it of breaking international law and violating Ukrainian sovereignty. Many countries implemented economic sanctions against Russia or Russian individuals or companies, to which Russia responded in kind. The Kremlin has tried to systematically intimidate and silence human rights workers who have raised questions about Russian soldiers' deaths in the conflict. Events On July 29, Russia vetoed a draft resolution at the UN to set up an international tribunal into the MH17 air disaster in July 2014; however, the foreign ministry stated it was committed to objective international investigation.